The Brightness of His Coming.
When Christ comes the second time, in his own glory and the glory of the Father, there will still be the two classes,—those whose sins have been purged away by the glory of the indwelling Christ, and those who identify themselves with sin by choosing that instead of God’s holiness. Christ will then come into his own dominion, which he created and redeemed from sin. His glorious presence will be manifest. Those who have identified themselves with sin by deliberate choice will be destroyed by “the brightness of his coming” (2 Thess. 2:8), “the forthshining of his presence;” while those who have chosen his holiness—his presence within, in the place of sin—will look up and with gladness exclaim, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isa. 25:9). Then to the wicked our God will be a consuming fire. But the righteous will be unharmed. (See Isa. 33:14, 15.) The subject is a fruitful one for study; we will not pursue it farther now. Yet, reader, let us beseech you by the mercies of God that you let Christ’s presence into your heart, that the sin may be consumed now, so that when the heavens may reveal his glory, you will not be consumed with the sin. He died and lives that he may take away your sins; will you not let him do this?